What If?
by halli-halliwell
Summary: Paige was an only child until she met Piper and Phoebe Halliwell, now they are sister wiches. When Paige tries to get to know her sisters a little better she lands her self in a whole lot of trouble by creating a alternant reality. Who knew the question '
1. Chapter 1

_So here is a story for your pleasure._

_It is set about two moths after Wyatt is born._

_Paige is feeling out of place and doesn't think she knows her sisters well enough. Piper and Phoebe feel uncomfortable talking about their pasts with her leaving Paige to do some snooping of her own. She finds her sisters' old diaries in a bow in the attic, and one little question, 'what if?', gets her in to a whole lot of trouble._

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**What If?**

**Chapter One**

Paige Matthews sat watching her eldest sister, Piper Halliwell cradling her baby son, Wyatt Mathew Halliwell.

Wyatt was a special baby.

A twice blessed child.

The child of a Charmed One, that was Piper, and a white lighter, that was Piper's husband, Leo Wyatt.

He was only two months old.

Paige liked his name.

It represented the whole family.

Wyatt, his father's last name, after his protective father.

Matthew, represented her place in the family, as his auntie.

Halliwell, a name that had its place in the magical world, a respected and feared name, like her and her sisters. Halliwell was after his mother and

Phoebe, now the middle sister.

There had been one more Halliwell sister, Prue.

But she had been killed by a demon before Paige had met her sisters.

She supposed the Halliwell also represented her presence in her nephew's life.

They'd been expecting a girl when Wyatt was born.

She would have been called Prudence Melinda Halliwell.

Wyatt was going to be a powerful force of good one day.

He was already coming into his powers.

He had made the baby alarm she had made to alert them to the presence of any demons go off when ever he wanted attention and he already had a protection shield he had used even before he was born.

Who knew what powers he was going to have in the future.

"Hold on to Wyatt for me." Piper said suddenly rousing Paige from her stream of thoughts.

Paige looked up to see Piper was standing in front her holding Wyatt close to her chest.

"What?" Paige's mind was still wondering.

"Hold Wyatt for me." Piper said a little slower. "I need to get dinner started."

"Okay." Paige said taking the small boy in her arms. "I was a million miles away."

"Oh yhea," Piper said. "It's the parents of the new born baby who are meant to be sleep deprived, not the auntie. Is Wyatt keeping you awake?"

"No." Paige drew out the word. "I was just thinking."

"You're dangerous when you think."

"I'm not." Paige protested. Then all the images of when her thoughts had got her and her sisters into trouble flooded back to her. "Okay, I am. But you don't have to be so blatant about it."

Piper began to gather the ingredients for the dinner.

Paige looked down at Wyatt and lost her self in thought again.

She knew Piper had once been a chef.

Piper was a good cook, Paige knew that for sure.

Paige had been a committed vegetarian until she had smelt Piper's meatloaf cooking when she came home from her job at social services one afternoon and it had turned her straight back in to a carnivore. That's how good her cooking was.

"You know," Paige said absently looking up at Piper. "I would have sworn you were a mother when I first met you."

"Really?" Piper asked.

"Uh-huh. You are just so maternal. I thought you and Leo would already have had kids."

"Paige," Piper stopped what she was doing to look her sister in the eye. "The elders had only just agreed to me and Leo marrying. Putting kids in the equation would have put us right back to square one."

"I wish I'd known you before the whole Charmed destiny kicked in." Paige said. "For me any way. I know you tell me what it was like, but you must have been different people back then. You were the middle sister, the peace maker then. Being the oldest sister has to have changed you."

"She's more stressed." Leo said walking into the kitchen.

"Not orbing?" Paige asked. "That's new. So I don't have to expect a demon attack in the next five minuets."

"You always have to expect a demon attack in this house." Piper said. "And it's not being the eldest sister that makes me stressed." She informed her husband as he walked over to her. "It's the whole magic business that does that thank you very much."

"Oh." Leo said before kissing his wife lightly on her lips. "Is it?"

"Yes it is." She said. "You should have seen me before. Relaxed, I think they call it."

"See," Paige said. "That's what I mean. I've never seen Piper relaxed."

Leo laughed and walked over to take Wyatt from her.

"What kick are you on now?" He asked.

"Wanting to know my sisters better." Paige informed him. "Wanting to know about there past. What where they like?"

"I only watched them." Leo said. "Made sure no demons got to them before they could come in to their powers."

"Well you can such me too." Piper said. "I don't remember much."

"Much of what?" Phoebe entered the kitchen by the back door.

"Pre witchy life." Piper said. "Do you remember what that was like?"

"You mean we had a life before we became witches?" Phoebe asked. "That must have been fun."

"It seems like a very long time ago." Piper said.

"There was that guy." Phoebe piped up.

Paige laughed.

Trust Phoebe to remember a guy.

"Who?" Piper asked. "Roger?"

"No. Jeramy and yes, there was Roger the pig too." Phoebe admitted. "Do you think I could turn him into a pig?"

"No!" Piper said. "An owl might be more fitting."

"Prue would find that hilarious." Phoebe said.

"What happened?" Paige asked. "With the guys?"

"Old wounds." Piper said with a sigh.

"This is exactly what I mean." Paige said. "I barley know you girls."

"You do sweetie." Piper said. "Just not the old us."

"Maybe you should look at some of our old stuff." Phoebe segregated. "We don't like to talk about some stuff. Like the blood sucking men, not literally."

"If you don't count that one guy who kept biting you." Piper countered causing Phoebe to cringe.

"You promised you wouldn't talk about that." Phoebe said through her hands.

Piper couldn't help but laugh.

Paige felt out of place.

"The stuff's up in the attic if you want to take a look." Piper said.

"We're going to have to right a book one day sis." Phoebe walked over to sling her arm around Piper's shoulder. "We'll make a fortune."

"Publish the old diaries." Piper said. "Just not let the men in our lives look at them."

"Why?" Leo asked. "What's in them?"

He put Wyatt in his bouncer and walked over to interrogate Piper.

"That's for me to know and you to wonder." Piper told him.

"Not for brother-in-laws to ever read." Phoebe said prodding him. "You should never know our secret thoughts."

"It would scare you." Piper said putting the roast into the oven before slipping into Leo's arms. "And traumatise our son."

Phoebe laughed harder.

"Phoebe," Piper said. "You know how much I love you."

"No I will no baby sit for you tonight." Phoebe said. "I may be meeting up with an old flame from New York."

"So long as he doesn't try to kill us." Piper said. "What's his name?"

"So why do you love me?" Phoebe chose to engorge the question.

"Peel the potatoes for me." Piper said.

"I stopped being your kitchen hand a long time ago." Phoebe said as she began to peel the potatoes. "I'm employed now."

"Old habits must die hard." Piper said.

Phoebe made a face.

Paige made a decision there and then.

She was going to get to know her sisters better.

That night after diner Paige sat in the attic serenaded by dusty boxes.

Phoebe had shown her the things she had mentioned earlier that day, but they weren't much use with out the stories behind them.

Just keepsakes that didn't mean any thing to Paige.

Old valentine's cards to her sisters from men Paige had never heard of.

She was reading her sisters' old diaries, the ones Piper had joked that they she publish.

Paige knew she probably shouldn't be reading them, but it was the only way she was going to find out about the aspects of her sisters' pasts they didn't want to talk about.

It turned out that Grams had made Prue, Piper and Phoebe keep diaries ever since they were old enough to write.

Piper and Phoebe still continued to keep diaries, every night.

Paige had never really seen the point in keeping diaries.

It had felt really wearied and disrespectful to read Prue's diaries and Phoebe could never keep a secret so there was nothing new to be learnt there.

Piper's diaries however were showing Paige a whole different side to her sister.

The box of diaries she had found started just before the three sisters had received their powers.

Piper had been engaged to a guy called Jeramy.

Jeramy had turned out to be a warlock after their powers, using Piper to pass the time.

It had hit Piper hard and her diary entrees reflected this.

One question seemed to be at the bottom of every page.

"What if?" Paige read aloud.

Paige had an idea.

The idea entreated her.

She wrote a spell that would be able to show her.

She said the spell and nothing happened.

It was late and Paige was tired, she fell asleep.

"What if?" She muttered in her dream. "What if?"


	2. Chapter 2

Dear Dairy…..

Do you ever have one of those days when breathing seams to be a chore?

There's a weight on your chest, it's heavy and you know it shouldn't be there, but you have no idea what is causing it to be there.

Today has been one of those days.

Nothing seamed to fit right from the start.

I should have known today was going to be a bad day from the moment my feet hit the floor.

There was just something in the air.

A dark cloud hanging over me.

I should have gone back to bed straight away, pulled the covers up over my head and let myself sleep this off.

Life's a complicated thing.

Has any one ever defined the meaning of the world life?

I don't mean the definition, not like in the dictionary.

I mean a universal meaning of life.

Should life always be a struggle?

Shouldn't good things happen in life?

Why are there days like today?

Steeping out of my house today and into the so called real world where real life takes

place, I was aware of some thing different in the air.

None of the intents we help save no the true horror of this world

Life has been a constant battle.

People always tell you it'll get easier.

To give yourself time.

But how much time do we really have?

Who knows when your number is going to up?

If life is a chore to live, should we continue to work at it?

My life is too complicated for words, even for me to explain to myself, let alone any one else, Prue, Phoebe a new guy I might happen to cross paths with.

Can I ever expect anyone to understand this?

To understand me?

I don't even understand me.

I don't know if I ever will.

All I've ever wanted is a normal life, a job, and friends, someone to come home to in the evenings.

Jeremy to come home to in the evenings.

I don't want to be a witch.

I don't want all these extra reasonability's.

I never asked for them.

Ignorance is bliss.

I whish I was still ignorant.

Ignorant of this, who we are, a life that is not charmed.

A life where I could live my dreams to the full and not have to worry about saving the world day and night.

If only this wasn't my life.

If only I was watching this on some big screen in the cinema.

A film I never wanted to see but Phoebs deranged me along to any way.

Is this ever going to end?

What if?

That's the one question I keep asking my self.

What if?

What if we'd never received our powers?

I could be happy.

I'd be with Jeremy, planning our wedding, a future together.

What if?

What if that were true?

What would my future hold?

What would our future hold?

I wonder silly little things like, would me and his mother still get on?

Phoebe's always been convinced in laws are from hell.

Would we have kids?

Boys?

Girls?

What would we call them?

Would the great honeymoon debate ever have been ended?

Or would it just have lasted forever?

Until we were old and grey and in a care home together.

Where would we have gone?

What would Jeremy be doing?

Still working for the newspaper?

Would he be one of these husbands who bring their work home or one who prefers to keep the office in the office?

What would I be doing?

He made me feel like I could do any thing, be any thing I wanted.

What dreams would I have achieved?

Is it weird that every morning when I wake up next to him?

I'm whishing that this whole witch business has been a horrible dream and it's all going to be back to the way it was before, me waiting for Phoebe to come home from New York.

It all started with me bringing her back.

Is this the universes way of telling me I shouldn't have interfered?

Because if it is it's seriously screwed up.

I want to know where we'd be living.

What our house would be like.

Would we still be in San Francisco?

What would we have inside the house?

How many arguments would we have had over colour schemes and old pieces of Grams' fruiter?

Would Prue have murdered Jeremy for saying something a little out of line like she always told him she would?

What would have happened to us as sisters?

Is this weight on my chest this question?

What if?

I can't help but wonder.

What if?

What if?

What if …


End file.
